And again a new school year has started

September, traditionally change of the girls.
Last week we received mail from India again.
The "biodates" of the new girls, lists of those who have left and lists of the new girls. Furthermore, the details of seven new students, who can do a higher education at our expense. This last part is becoming an increasingly important part of our sponsorship program. Currently, our foundation pays the further training of some 20 students. Some of you will receive with this letter the details of a new girl. From this year onwards we are supporting 95 girls in Seva Sangam. Also this year the government in India has ensured for new Indian sponsors, which means that the number of supported girls remains the same.

Nivedhita a successful student.

Nivedhitha, a successful student.

This young woman is, up to now, the girl who has been sponsored the longest of our project. A success story. She has been internal from her 5th year (so now over 16 years) and is one of the students who completed a follow-up study with a lot of success, viz. Physics, no small feat for a young woman. We had, and still have, a good relationship with her and we hope this will continue. She informed us that she now has a job as a teacher of physics, also in the city of Trichy, at another High School. I have skyped long with her. Teaching went reasonably well, she's a very young teacher and the classes are big in India. Most classes obey well (so she says), but mischief is also made. However, her ambitions are still to teach at a university.
At present, she still lives internally at Seva Sangam and in the evenings she is also a warden (caretaker) of a group of single girls. She has chosen for this, because now she does not have to pay for a boardinghouse and can save a lot. She wants no salary for her job as a warden, in gratitude for so many years of support. The latter was told us by Mrs. Parimala in a recent Skype conversation. We hope that she, along with other former students, will encourage young girls to continue studying. But more importantly, advise them to choose the right study, also with future prospects. Too often popular directions are chosen without much chance of a good job.

Alumni.
Last year we met Anu Nettar, a young Indian woman, who studied in Maastricht and still lives and works there. She then, during our last Seva Sangam-afternoon in Vilt, gave a dance performance for us. Now we have asked her to write a letter to the administration in India to convince them of the help that Alumni can provide to the young girls who now face a study. Our previous attempts to set up an alumni policy have failed, but with the efforts of a young Indian woman, we still hope that this project will as yet be successful. Anu also writes a letter to former students in which she asks them to participate like Nivedhitha did. Also this we hope will be successful, in that they can persuade young women to give back to the school that has given them so much. We ask our supporters to report to us any experiences or good ideas on Alumni.

Sports day.
Every year there is a big sports day with festivities. As you all know, is our "hostel", the boarding school of our girls, at the same site as the primary and secondary school with the same name, awaits ceremonies etc. Here are some nice pictures of the day Often working out in their regular school clothes, but also in real sportswear There are also schools competitions.our School Seva Sangam has a good reputation in the city of Trichy, also in sport, and takes a lot of prizes in these competitions.

News from the region.
Our Seva Sangam Foundation is affiliated with the platform Global Citizenship in Valkenburg a/d Geul.
This year, this platform is organizing a Peace Vigil on Wednesday, September 21st. I have already invited the donors in our region separately. I fear that this newsletter is just too late for this event, but I still want to mention it. The members of the platform are still very active. Recently there have been 2 major events for projects in Sri Lanka. A joint big festival will not take place again this year. However, again we plan to give guest lectures at schools. For those who do not "like" us yet on facebook, we mention once again our Facebook name: "Tiruchy Seva Sangam". We try to regularly post short messages and pictures on it.
 
On behalve of the board: Mieke Aussems - van de Beek